"Stay close," Minerva looked confusedly up at David. He was staring off into the distance, or specifically the direction in which Charlie had disappeared off to. Slowly, his face turned and looked down at her. "I worry."

"I know." Minerva whispered, she placed her hand against his arm. "I will be by your side, through this whole journey, David. I promise you." She smiled softly, she couldn't think of a better person to go exploring with to be honest here.

David's lips slowly pulled into a smile of his own, a genuine one. Not like the sarcastic smiles he was sending Charlie's way earlier. "Quite the little shadow, aren't you?"

Minerva let out a quiet laugh and nodded her head, she wasn't sure whether she should've agreed with his words or not; but even if she didn't, who was she to lie that she would shadow him. She looked up hearing Charlie again, David's eyes narrowed and Minerva rolled hers. He was practically like a child at Christmas jumping almost to one side trying to hurry everyone up to get in the vehicle which would take them outside.

David placed a hand behind her back and encouraged her forwards. He simply followed suit as everyone got their first glimpse of outside. Charlie cracked a space joke which got silence and looks sent his way. Minerva just looked at David with a dumbfounded look. This may be akin to the first man on the moon, but there was something irking that it was Charlie who did this pun.

The sky was grey, the surface of the planet covered in rocky outcrops and boulders. The ground was equally grey in colour, as far as the horizon stretched it was all the same. There was nothing outstanding in this place, no landmark, other than the dome before them, that could be considered as such. It was all the same, dark, grey bleak surroundings. The sky and ground almost bled into one, there was a slight breeze which picked up dirt, but overall it was deathly silent.

It was eerier outside then what was first suspected. Although, it was clear none of them knew exactly what was to be expected. Wasn't like there was going to be a welcome party, was it? Although, if there was, it would surely simplify this mission down and make it a lot less complicated. The eerie feeling if anything grew once the journey away from the ship ended. The dome before them was vast, vastly larger than what any scan or view could even begin to imagine. It was clear that it was not created by nature. It was too perfect, too smooth and symmetrical. Along the ground was a crooked and jagged opening. It looked as if soil and earth had eroded away and fallen inside. It was a natural way in. It didn't look manmade because of how the opening was formed.

Jagged rock stuck out from the ground and the ceiling as they all leaned down to enter. It was a bit of a dodge and weave affair, getting inside was tricky. But eventually, even through slipping and tripping a little, everyone managed to get inside. It was deceiving really, what had been a narrow passageway, had slowly opened up into a space which allowed them to walk side by side. It was still dark, but the light from outside could filter down to illuminate the way a little. Details were still hard to make out however, but it was nothing that the lights on everyone's suits couldn't combat against. Although, in saying this, the beams of light did struggle. The darkness down here seemed absolute, heavy and unable to be penetrated.

"How high up do you think this goes?" Minerva asked, the ceiling seemed to stretched upwards for a fair while. With little light source there was, she could clearly see the height of this place. The only other person who wouldn't struggle to see was David. But he was too busy to one side looking over other things in this space.

Millburn stood beside her suddenly, he had his hands on his hips and whistled thoughtfully. "High enough to fit a thirty storey building in?" He estimated, although his words caused her to frown at him curiously. "What? I'm guesstimating here." He laughed quietly, the noise seemed to echo out in the large room. Because of the echo, it was clear there wasn't anything in here for the sound waves to bounce off of.

"Excuse me I don't take this seriously." Minerva smiled and stepped forwards. She made her way down the small hill of dirt she seemed to be standing on. Sliding down a little, Minerva looked to David when he grabbed her arm gently and steadied her. His eyes just slid away from the mounds of dirt he was looking dismally down at, to her. "Thank you, David."

He just smiled and looked forwards, openings had appeared. Tall doorways which seemed to lead to corridor like structures. "Quite the maze, isn't it?" He asked quietly while the group continued onwards. Everyone was silent, as if the silence would help them all to process what they were seeing. But he was right, each turning seemed to lead somewhere else, somewhere they hadn't been yet. Winding connecting spaces which led to only who knew where.

"Mr Fifield, let's get a grid of the structure. I want the whole interior." Charlie casually said while turning and looking at the redhead.

He sniffed and gave a nod. A frown was on his face as he knelt down, he lowered the case which was in his hand. "If there's anything in here worth looking at, these pups will find them." He simply unclipped the clasps on the case and opened the lid slowly. Within the cushioned padding sat small spherical pieces of equipment.

"Pups?"

"Yeah, pups. My pups." Fifield explained while scooping the spheres up and out of their cushioned packaging. He looked them over fondly before flashing lights seemed to flicker on. With his hands opening, they entered the air. Almost silently, they emitted a quiet buzzing as they took off flight and took to scanning the environment which they were now in. "Prometheus, we are now mapping." Fifield said into the intercom so those back on the ship could hear. Janek was left in charge of receiving and watching the holographic map come back to the ship.

With the flickering red light of the drone leading the way, the group followed after it. The others had all found other avenues to venture down. Without getting lost, it was best to stick together. Before they even entered the room, the sound of quiet water trickling could be heard. The sun, what light it gave off from grey clouds outside, was streaming down from a hole in the ceiling. Being the most enthusiastic member of the crew, Charlie of course was the one who instantly moved to the opening to peer upwards. Everyone else filtered into the room, but a bit more hesitantly. After all, they still didn't know this place, or what could be here. Rushing ahead of everyone could lead to trouble.

"The sunlight is heating the water. Check out the humidity," Kate said while looking over the readouts on her suits equipment.

"Yeah, look at the CO2 levels. Outside it's completely toxic and in here, there's nothing. It's breathable." Charlie took to looking over his suits readouts too.

"What are you doing?! Charlie, don't be an idiot!" Elizabeth stood and watched as Charlie reached up to unclip and detach his helmet from his suit. She frowned and shook her head, worried about what the effects would be from doing such a thing. Even if the suit was saying one thing, it didn't mean it was completely accurate, could never be too sure, and all that.

"Hey, don't be a sceptic, right? There's something generating an atmosphere. David?" Charlie slowly looked over to where the blonde was standing.

Behind her back, David had a grasp on Minerva's belt to stop her shuffling over to the opening to have a proper gawp. He could feel her tugging to want to explore and see what it was like, but he wasn't having it. He was the stronger, so it took little to keep her by his side. Hearing his name though, David looked over to Charlie. "Doctor Holloway is correct." He replied simply while looking equally simply around at everyone. Charlie, clearly hearing what he wanted just nodded his head.

"It's cleaner than Earth, actually." Kate said while looking around. She stopped looking to the readouts to look at everyone else. She squinted upwards at the filtering light and the outside world beyond.

"Don't, please don't do-"

"Look, Eli," Charlie cut Elizabeth off easily enough. She still looked uncertain and worried, even as Charlie still held onto his helmet, intent on taking it off.

"Please, don't!" She pleaded, what if the readouts were wrong? He'd suffocate and the end would be horrid, and drastic and she didn't want that.

"Eli, I'm not wearing this thing anymore. Wish me luck, babe." His hands firmly gripped onto the helmet, and with an easy tug, pulled it free. A moment of awkward silence passed as Charlie stood there with his eyes shut. He inhaled deeply and laughed, looking over to Elizabeth with a grin, he wasn't surprised to be greeted by her looking at him with an annoyed look, yet she still smiled.

"Prometheus, connect to our suit cameras if you want to continue watching this freak show. We are taking our helmets off." Fifield checked back to the ship while he was perhaps a bit more hesitant to take his helmet off.

"No more feeling like a fish in a bowl. Isn't that a good thing?" Minerva asked, Fifield being nearby heard her and shot her a look. "What? If something bad was going to happen, Charlie would be dead on the floor, right?" Minerva said while looking to Charlie as he helped Elizabeth take her helmet off and stand chatting to her.

"She's right, nothing bad will come from taking your helmet off. You have my word." David said, polite smile in place as Fifield just looked between them and walked off grumbling to himself.

"I don't think he likes us."

"I suspect he doesn't like many." David replied while he removed his helmet and looked to her. She shook her hair free and looked up at him with a smile. "Shall we?" He gestured a hand forwards. Minerva clapped her hands together and shuffled forwards eagerly.

"This place seems to go on, and on." Minerva said quietly, craning her neck upwards to look at the high ceilings. Frowning she looked to David, he was looking around yet feeling her eyes on him, he looked at her. "If...if the ceilings are so high up, does that mean these things were giants?"

David hummed quietly and looked down at the ground. "Giants have been a part of mythology and religion for decades." David looked over his shoulder, seems there was no danger, everyone had taken a more relaxed turn in exploring.

Minerva looked to the shadows being chased away by her torch as she looked over the walls. They were littered with odd shaped structures, some led into alcoves, others just seemed to be decoration. "I don't think I would want to meet a giant." Minerva said while walking slowly over to the walls, the tubed swirling pattern was distracting and just a bit strange. She had never seen architecture like it.

David stepped beside her, tilting his head he reached out. Sweeping his hand against the wall, he leaned back a little before leaning forwards to inspect the pad he had discovered. Whereas Minerva was standing poking the wall, David stood and touched the indents on the pad before him. His torch gave off enough light for him to see what he was doing. Hearing a sudden groan, he looked sidewards at Minerva. She stopped inspecting the wall to look at him. She shoved him aside and looked at the control pad he had been tinkering with. There was something disturbingly human sounding about the screech which echoed throughout the corridors. It was high pitched, slightly painful to listen to as everyone paused and looked around worriedly. It sounded a little scary, Minerva could easily admit to that. She didn't like this sound.

Everyone seemed to be on the same page as they were exclaiming in confusion. "What was that?" Millburn asked while he frantically turned each which way to see if he could spot something.

"David? David?!" Elizabeth called out as she spotted the synthetic just standing still. He hadn't moved from the wall, he couldn't look less guilty as Minerva stood next to him with her hands on her cheeks looking worriedly around still.

"David?" Charlie's voice was a lot blunter as he picked up his pace, his footsteps stomping against the ground as he stared down at David, despite David being the taller male. David's eyes widened slowly, he didn't answer anyone because he felt like he didn't need to as he caught sight of a blue, holographic ghostly form in the distance. The humanoid figure was large, larger than himself and the humans he was with. Considering where his eyes were looking, everyone cottoned on and turned to look too. Their reactions were more of panic, then standing still like David.

"What the hell was that?!" Millburn sounded near on hysterical as he jumped in the corridor. No one had an answer, even if the answer may have been a bit obvious...surely, that holographic thing was what they had all come in search for? He looked around as one by one, each person seemed to run in the direction in which this figure disappeared too.

The dark corridors hadn't been walked in for years, let alone ran down. The last thing to run down these winding dark spaces was clearly the thing they were all following. The holograms paused, looked around and then ran again. It was as if they were worriedly looking out for something, something which none of them could see. After some more running, one figure fell over. Tripping over its own feet it landed heavily on the ground, and then it was gone. It had led them all to a door. The door blended in brilliantly with the wall, but the opening could be seen. This thing, its body remained. Dead for years, laying forgotten, its head on the other side of the door; decapitated and decaying, it wasn't exactly what they expected to find.

Whereas Charlie may have been excited to get out the ship, Elizabeth was the first one to move over the sunken body. She kneeled beside it and looked it over, her eyes wide with disbelief as she looked at the body. All these years, all the arguments she had over what she proposed to so many specialists, yet here, right here was proof. She had been right. "We found them!" She said, exclaiming in surprise. She leaned further down to inspect the body. It was strange, the suit it was wearing was something that was unknown to them all. Nothing like this existed on Earth, that was clear with one look. It was ribbed, protecting the wearer and following the natural curve of its body. The appearance of it was very much like the structures and patterns which were within the ship, on its walls.

"What do you mean, 'them'?" Fifield sounded panicked. He didn't sound excited, he didn't sound enthusiastic, he sounded panicked. His expression matched his tone of voice as he looked to the body before him. He even took a tentative step back, he didn't want to be near this thing, dead or not. Everyone else seemed to be processing this differently. It had some looking shocked, others in disbelief, awe and dumbfounded too was present. The only ones who seemed to be chatting away were Charlie and Elizabeth. Everyone else was silently in shock. No one, even if they chose to deny it, expected really to come across something, let alone that something being a corpse.

"It is them, Eli." Charlie stepped closer to where she was and knelt down. He slowly turned and looked upwards to the door. "It looks like he's been decapitated by it." He stated while looking back over the group. Tilting his head, he pointed his torch. Something on the wall had caught his attention. "David, please tell me you can read that?"

David looked over the markings with curious blue eyes. "Perhaps," he mused while suddenly looking to the side when Fifield exclaimed.

"No. No. I'm out of here!" He had edged back even more, he wasn't up for this. His panicked look if anything had grown. His complexion had paled, and he looked close to a breakdown. Minerva got shoved aside a little as Fifield had turned suddenly and commenced stomping away.

"Hey, Fifield! Where are you going?!" Was all that got called out to him as he continued making his way back.

He stopped and tapped his foot before turning and looking back at the group. "What? Look, I'm just a geologist! I like rocks! I love rocks! Now it's clear you two don't give a shit about rocks. But what you do seem to care about is gigantic dead bodies; and I don't really have anything to contribute in the gigantic dead body arena! I'm gonna go back to the ship, if you don't mind?" He ranted and vented out in a seething tone as he stared over everyone, Elizabeth especially got glared at. "Anyone want to join me, hey?" He seemed to look to Millburn, he stood looking sceptical and a little uncomfortable too. "You staying?"

"Uh...no. Ships good." His complexion had paled considerably too upon seeing this thing. It seemed he shared Filfield's thoughts, but was more content to let him voice them.

"Yeah, ship very good." He nodded and then looked back at Elizabeth. "Congratulations on meeting your maker."

"Thank you," she said in a low tone while staring up at the two as they backed off again.

"Pull yourself together, man!" Charlie exclaimed shortly. It didn't stop either men, they just ignored him and continued moving. Shaking his head slowly, he looked back at the corpse.

David had watched the men walk away with an indifferent look. It wasn't like they bought much to this team, or at least they didn't yet. Frowning he looked to Minerva, she looked uncertainly at the corpse. It must have been weird, or disconcerting; to see your original creator. Placing a hand against her shoulder, he looked apologetic when she jumped. "Will you help me?" He asked, she looked confused and just nodded at the ladder.

"Oh...yeah...yeah, okay." Minerva helped him pick the ladder up and set it against the wall. She knew he didn't need help, not really.

David looked at her as she held the side of the ladder and looked at the floor. "Are you okay?"

Her eyes flicked up and looked at him. "I don't know what's worse, a live giant or a dead one."

David smiled softly and patted her shoulder gently. "It cannot hurt you."

Minerva looked over her shoulder and frowned uncertainly. "I know...just..." Minerva's eyes looked back at him. "It was running from something...what was it running from?"

"I don't know." David looked back at the dark corridor behind them. "I don't know," he repeated quieter with a shake of his head, he looked at her. She looked worried, "If there is something that can cause harm, it won't cause harm to you." Minerva tilted her head confused. David smiled and put his foot on the first rung of the ladder. "Because I wouldn't let it; and it's not because your father ordered me to keep you safe, it's a feeling that runs a lot deeper. So don't worry, Minnie. You are safe with me. Now, please keep the ladder steady."

"As if falling would hurt you." She said while watching him start climbing up.

He paused and looked back down at her. "It wouldn't hurt, but it would be an inconvenience." He smiled, she laughed quietly and watched as he looked back up and came to pause at the markings on the wall. He frowned slowly and looked them over before reaching up and brushing his hand against it. It responded to him, a light blue glow came from the markings and he lifted a hand up to try and commence opening the door.

——

Edited: 16/June/2021